united states
Woman gets 8 years for aiding North Koreans infiltrate 300 US firms
Christina Marie Chapman, a 50-year-old woman from Arizona, was sentenced to 102 months in prison after pleading guilty to her involvement in a scheme that enabled North Korean IT workers to infiltrate 309 U.S. companies. Chapman was charged in May 2024, together with Ukrainian citizen Oleksandr Didenko, with aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to defraud the United States, […]
US nuclear weapons agency hacked in Microsoft SharePoint attacks
Unknown threat actors have breached the National Nuclear Security Administration’s network in attacks exploiting a recently patched Microsoft SharePoint zero-day vulnerability chain. NNSA is a semi-autonomous U.S. government agency part of the Department of Energy that maintains the country’s nuclear weapons stockpile and is also tasked with responding to nuclear and radiological emergencies within the […]
U.S. Army soldier pleads guilty to extorting 10 tech, telecom firms
A 21-year old former U.S. Army soldier pleaded guilty to charges of hacking and extorting at least ten telecommunications and technology companies in the country. Cameron John Wagenius was arrested in Texas on December 20, 2024 and indicted in the Western District of Washington on two counts of unlawful transfer of confidential phone records. In February […]
xAI prepares Grok 4 Code as it plans to take on Claude and Gemini
xAI is preparing the rollout of Grok 4, which replaces Grok 3 as the new state-of-the-art model. Ahead of the rollout, testers on X have again spotted references to a few new Grok 4 models. One of the models is called “grok-4-prod-mimic,” which reportedly excels at enterprise use cases like data extraction, coding, and text summarisation. It also […]
U.S. warns of Iranian cyber threats on critical infrastructure
U.S. cyber agencies, the FBI, and NSA issued an urgent warning today about potential cyberattacks from Iranian-affiliated hackers targeting U.S. critical infrastructure. CISA says there are no indications of an ongoing campaign but urges critical infrastructure organizations and other potential targets to monitor their defense due to the current unrest in the Middle East and cyber […]
Hawaiian Airlines discloses cyberattack, flights not affected
Hawaiian Airlines, the tenth-largest commercial airline in the United States, is investigating a cyberattack that has disrupted access to some of its systems. With over 7,000 employees, 235 average daily flights, and a fleet of over 60 airplanes, Hawaiian Airlines connects Hawai’i with 15 U.S. mainland cities and 10 other destinations across Asia and the […]
Man pleads guilty to hacking networks to pitch security services
A Kansas City man has pleaded guilty to hacking multiple organizations to advertise his cybersecurity services, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday. 32-year-old Nicholas Michael Kloster was indicted last year for hacking into the networks of three organizations in 2024, including a health club and a Missouri nonprofit corporation. According to court documents, Kloster accessed the […]
US House bans WhatsApp on staff devices over security concerns
The U.S. House of Representatives has banned the installation and use of WhatsApp on government-issued devices belonging to congressional staff, citing concerns over how the app encrypts and secures data. The ban covers mobile phones, laptops, desktop computers, and any web browsers used on those devices. Congressional staff are still free to use WhatsApp on […]
US Homeland Security warns of escalating Iranian cyberattack risks
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned over the weekend of escalating cyberattack risks by Iran-backed hacking groups and pro-Iranian hacktivists. This warning was issued as a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin on Sunday and cautions that the Iranian conflict is causing a “heightened threat environment” in the United States, with “low-level” cyberattacks targeting […]
Aflac discloses breach amidst Scattered Spider insurance attacks
On Friday, American insurance giant Aflac disclosed that its systems were breached in a broader campaign targeting insurance companies across the United States by attackers who may have stolen personal and health information. Aflac (short for American Family Life Assurance Company) is the largest supplemental insurance provider in the U.S. and a Fortune 500 company […]